Lighting Solutions Provide Ambience, Save Money, and Help the Environment
Nothing says class like the warm, welcoming glow of LED lighting. The bulbs are more efficient than traditional ones, and they last for decades. LED light is also easy on the eyes - so you can spend more time enjoying your home instead of squinting at it!
LEDs save up to 90% energy over incandescent bulbs and the lifespan lasts a whopping 20 years or more. LEDs don't release toxic mercury vapor and they don't contain any lead.
A study conducted by the North Carolina State University Durham Energy and Climate Center found that energy usage can be reduced by up to 90% with a smart LED lighting upgrade. LEDs also last longer than 25,000 hours, about 31 years on average. That's longer than an estimated lifetime of three American presidents!
LEDs can save you money. You'll spend less on electricity, thus saving you money on utility bills. The bulbs aren't as susceptible to fire as incandescent bulbs (a safety concern), they may even pay for themselves within two years!
LEDs produce very little heat and they don't contain any mercury which can create a toxic and dangerous vapor cloud in a fire.
And LEDs let you live more comfortably with their low-light flicker-free design and no warm light.
LED lighting is less likely to cause headaches, eye strain and fatigue (the bulbs contain virtually no UV or infrared light). And the bulbs are energy efficient, having a 30% lower power consumption than traditional incandescent bulbs. And they give off almost no heat so they don't warm up your home - which means you can save on your air conditioning costs.
LEDs use about 70% less electricity than traditional lighting. They last longer, burn cool, are mercury-free and completely safe.
But don't take my word for it... The U.S. Department of Energy has funded a $9 million study of LED lighting at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte which will run through 2016.
UNC Charlotte Professor Greg Nelson says LEDs are ideal for schools because they last much longer than traditional bulbs and they won't need to be replaced as often or during classroom activities like science experiments that may break regular bulbs.
Nelson says the majority of energy used in school lighting is for the lights that are on when no one is in the rooms, so switching to LEDs could make a big difference on school energy bills. The university's lighting bill has already been reduced by half since it began its LED program two years ago...
"What this is going to do is allow us to save a lot of operating dollars," Nelson said. "The lights are on when we need them. They're off when we don't need them. And it's reducing our energy consumption from a lighting standpoint by half."
In addition to Charlotte, the University of North Carolina at Asheville and Western Carolina University are also conducting LED lighting research programs...
The low cost and long lifespan of LEDs make them ideal for institutional use like businesses. Many commercial customers have already converted from incandescent bulbs to LEDs :
- In 2012, Happy Lighting in Asheville, NC replaced 4,000 incandescent bulbs with LEDs saving over $7000 annually in energy costs.
- Nationwide, 17 hotels across the country have completed pilot lighting programs, with an average of 45% in energy savings.
- The City of Atlanta was able to reduce its annual electricity bill by $700,000.
LEDs are so efficient that they even outpace CFLs (compact fluorescent lights) when it comes to cost-savings.
LEDs are more expensive than CFLs, but they last 20 times longer and use 70% less energy.
And LEDs are more energy-efficient than CFLs, which can be 25 times more power-hungry...
In fact, LEDs are so efficient that in an itemized list of its energy savings they surpass CFLs by a wide margin: "These lamps use up to 70 percent less energy for the same light output and last over twice as long," says industry spokesman Robert Kresge. "LED is far more efficient than incandescent lighting and pays for itself after 5 years."…
Bill Alton at Sunny Lighting Consultants in Halifax, Nova Scotia says he's seen LED bulbs first hand.
"The cool thing about the LEDs we saw was that they are just like daylight. I've seen CFLs that claim to be like daylight but they're not really," says Alton. "A lot of people buy fluorescent lights because they think they're more energy efficient, but LEDs use 50% less energy than fluorescent."
LEDs work by directing electrons through semiconductors and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) instead of a filament. The semiconductor material is either made up of gallium nitride or silicon carbide.
In the future, many experts believe that LED lighting will be built into everyday household appliances such as washers, dryers and dishwashers...
"They're already in televisions, computers and monitors," says Alton. "I don't think there's any doubt that we'll have them in home appliances."
LEDs are used more in specific applications like lighting, traffic lights and indicator lights. The benefits of LEDs include :
- Efficiency: LEDs use only about 10% of the energy required by incandescent bulbs to produce the same amount of light.
- Long life: LEDs typically last 100,000 hours or 25 years (that's about the lifespan of three American presidents...). That means that you will save over $2,000 on electricity bills over an LED's lifespan and reduce your environmental footprint.
- Safety: LEDs do not burn as intensely as incandescent bulbs, and thus are safer.
- Cool light: LEDs are more efficient than incandescent bulbs, which produce intense heat that can be uncomfortable for people without the proper light controls.
- Instant on/off: LEDs are very fast to turn on and off, as opposed to incandescent bulbs which take several seconds to reach full luminosity.
LED lighting has come a long way in recent years...
For example, in 2003 consumers were limited to monochromatic lights (lights with a single hue). Today they can choose from a wide range of colors and brightnesses .
Conclusion:
LED lighting is the way of the future. A big advantage to LED lights is their energy-efficiency. Lighting up an area with an LED light uses a lot less energy than traditional lighting, and this reduction in energy consumption can lead to cost savings.
If you're interested in installing LED lights in your home, it's easy! All you need to do is replace your old incandescent bulbs with LEDs...
You also have more flexibility as LED technology develops since the lifespan of LEDs continues to increase. This makes them better investment than traditional bulbs which are increasingly being banned because they contain toxic materials like mercury and require frequent disposal if broken .